Akira Kurosawa — Ever watched The Hidden Fortress [ imdb ]? To my eyes, Star Wars [ imdb ], as much fun as it is, is only a pallid remake of the Japanese original. (Via Cora Buhlert, who has a lot to say about all this.)

Breaking Through Cancer’s Shield — The recent discovery that cancers can evade the immune system by wrapping themselves in a protective shield offered a bonus: a way to try to thwart the disease. (Via David Goldman.)

The Truthiness of Rand Paul — "I never, ever cheated. I don't condone cheating. But I would sometimes spread misinformation. This is a great tactic. Misinformation can be very important." When Republicans can't win an election on the merits (and they can't anymore, outside of safely gerrymandered districts and deep red states full of low information voters) this is how they campaign.

The Tea Party, by the Numbers — Two-thirds of regular Republicans believe the federal budget deficit has grown this year and 93 percent of Tea Party Republicans agree. Both are wrong; the budget deficit is projected to fall this year from $1.1 trillion to $642 billion. Speaking of low information voters. Conservatives, as always, are wrong on the plain face of the facts. As always, if ever confronted with the evidence, they will blame liberal bias and cling to their cherished beliefs. That something they believe may not be true has zero impact on conservative political discourse or the manufacturing of angry white men.

Inside the Fox News lie machine: I fact-checked Sean Hannity on Obamacare — Individual conservatives who went on national television (FOX, of course) to share their outrage over Obamacare's punitive provisions turn out to either be knowingly lying, or never to have checked the reality of the situation at all. Gee, what a shock. The truth has no impact on their political convictions.

Conservatives, Get a Grip on Reality! — Obviously, not every Republican or conservative thought, up until the end, that Romney would win or that the anti-Obamacare strategies would work. But this increasingly widespread tone deafness should concern party leaders, particularly when it leads to self-destructive decisions, as we are witnessing these days. In politics, it isn’t uncommon to see judgment clouded by emotion, but when hate and contempt predominate, truly awful decisions often result. That's what you get when your primary electoral strategy is manufacturing angry white men. Also, this story could have done without the stupid false equivalency obviously thrown in to deflect criticism that by reporting on the documented reality of the Republican party, this reporter is being a liberal partisan.

Scenes from a broken Republican Party — The fact that repealing the 17th Amendment is an unpopular crackpot idea is, then, a feature, not a bug — because the more nutty the idea, the harder it is for regular conservatives to adopt it. Although Dewhurst, having lost to Cruz, seems to have figured out how to play the game. Now, apply that story and its logic to the crackpot idea of shutting down the government until the Democrats surrender the Affordable Care Act, and I think you can see what’s going on.

Cruz put GOP in position to be broken — Over the last several days, I've seen some Republicans complaining that President Barack Obama and the Democrats were trying to break them. Their anger is misplaced. They should be angry at Ted Cruz for putting Republicans in a position to be broken. Has there been a point anywhere in the past thirty years where the GOP hasn't sought to break and decimate the Democratic party? Doesn't feel so good to be beaten with your own stick, does it, conservative America?

World War GOP — America deserves a far better conservative party than this mewling insanity. […] Unless Republicans shed themselves, and soon, of the uncompromising fanatics and the raging extremists and the yellow-eyed religious zealots and the seditious confederates and the tri-corner hat wearing conspiracy nuts, they will drive both themselves and the rest of us to ruin. Jim Wright rants magnificently as ever about the recent behavior of the GOP. As usual, with citations quoting America's ruling lunatics in their own words.

I almost regret watching Hidden Fortress, because until then, I'd consoled my post-Episode 1 soul with the fact that at least George Lucas still had a good visual style...until I realized exactly how much he'd copied from Hidden Fortress!

I'd be a hypocrite if I complained about America copying Kurosawa's movies, because some of the best movies have done exactly that, and the back and forth between the national genres fascinates me. But dangit, The Magnificent Seven managed to make itself completely unique!